The brutal killing of Tsar Nicholas and his family by Bolshevik soldiers in a small Siberian town more than 75 years ago has been one of modern history's most haunting and mysterious events. Robert K. Massie, in his recent book, The Romanovs: The Final Chapter, attempts to answer conclusively the many intriguing questions that have long surrounded this chilling tragedy.

Mr. Massie is the author of the 1967 biography Nicholas and Alexandra, perhaps the definitive work on the life of the Russian royal family. As might be expected, he draws extensively from his earlier work in describing the events leading up to the Romanovs' execution. However, with the fall of the Communist regime and the opening-up of official Russian archives, much new information on the royal killing and its ghoulish aftermath has been brought to light.

The credit for bringing this new information to the rest of the world largely belongs to Edvard Radzinsky. In his 1989 work, The Last Tsar, Mr. Radzinsky uses long-hidden Soviet documents, official telegrams and the writings of the assassins to provide the first full account of the execution of the Romanovs and the barbaric disposal of their remains. Mr. Massie's book takes us further down the path of this incredible story, reporting with remarkable clarity on the modern anthropological procedures and DNA testing that were used to give the final answers to this mystery.

(1.5Mb) Robert Massie/Press Conference

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